It was a tale of two halves for the Patriots, who got off to a slow start and fell behind 17-3 at the end of the second quarter. The offense finally picked up and the defense made some clutch stops, including a highlight-reel tip and interception by Devin McCourty to Marquice Cole.

One of the reasons the offense looked sluggish to start the game was the apparent benching of running back Stevan Ridley, which Socci believes was for disciplinary reasons.

“Based on the way Ridley was acting on the sidelines, at various times kicking his legs trying to stretch them out, he got on the exercise bike to keep loose – it certainly wasn’t a physical issue at first,” said Socci.”

Another topic of discussion was the health of Tom Brady. CBS cameras zoomed in to show what looked like obvious swelling on the fingers of Brady’s throwing hand before the game, and with the lackluster stat line of 116 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT it’s logical to attribute the subpar performance to injury.

“During pregame warmups yesterday, you could see Brady throwing once for every five or six attempts by Ryan Mallett. Even between series, he wasn’t warming up a lot during the course of the game. Those are signs that there’s something amiss with that right hand. I think the television closeups clearly show that.”

Socci then went on to discuss the injury to right tackle Sebastian Vollmer and what it means going forward, and if they’ll address any roster positions by the trade deadline.